The present invention relates to foot-operated parking brakes for cars and one-way dampers for use therein.
As parking brakes of this type, manual and foot-operated ones have recently been used. A foot-operated brake is generally provided with a brake pedal, a ratchet mechanism which holds the position of the brake pedal when the pedal is stepped down and a return spring which returns the pedal to its home position when the ratchet mechanism is released.
Some cars use a foot-operated brake including a combination of the above mechanism and a shock absorber type damper which includes a piston and a cylinder which accommodates the piston so that impacts occurring when the brake pedal is returned by the return spring to its home position are dampened to thereby prevent the generation of foreign noise due to rapid return of the pedal. Such damper is required to be disposed between the pedal arm and the chassis, so that the space around the pedal is small disadvantageously. A damper for use in the parking brake must be a one-way one which exhibits a sufficiently small resistance to the stepping-down of the brake pedal and which exhibits a desired damping force when it is returned. Provision of such function to the conventional shock absorber type damper renders same relatively expensive.
Since the ratchet mechanism used for the foot-operated parking brake is constructed such that the position of the pedal arm is kept by engaging a lock tooth with a ratchet tooth, foreign noise would be produced due to engaging noise produced when the lock tooth is engaged with the ratchet tooth. In such ratchet mechanism, the ratchet and lock teeth would necessarily be worn, so that unless sufficient measures are taken, desired durability and reliability may not be obtained.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a one-way damper which does not occupy so large an area in a car where installed, provides a sufficient space around the brake pedal, and exhibits sufficiently low resistance to the stepping-down of the brake and a desired damping force when the pedal is returned, using a simple structure, and a foot-operated parking brake for a car, using the damper.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a foot-operated parking brake for a car which produces reduced foreign noise and improves durability and reliability.